Seasonal Journal VOL 10 ISSUE 1
CWALDORF.ORG
Page 1 - CWS Seasonal Journal, Autumn 2019
AUTUMN 2019
The Charlottesville Waldorf School SEASONAL JOURNAL Volume 10 Issue 1 - Autumn 2019 Amanda Polson Editor / Graphic Designer ADMINISTRATION Devynn Thomas, Interim Administrator Bethany Craig, Interim Faculty Chair Dawn Grzegorczyk, Business Manager Sarah Pevehouse, Admissions Director Amanda Polson, Marketing Coordinator Shane Pevehouse, Facilities Manager BOARD OF TRUSTEES Ted Jones, Chair Derek Mansfield Chris Russ Julia Craig Barbara Gehrung Emily Irvine
The Charlottesville Waldorf School admits students of any race, color, gender, sexual orientation, religion and national or ethnic origin. It does not discriminate on the basis of sex race, color, religion, disability, sexual orientation or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its hiring policies, educational policies, admission policies, financial aid programs, athletic and other school-administered programs.
Dear CWS Community, Responsible Innovation was the theme of the most recent Association of Waldorf Schools of North America conference. Responsible Innovation is a theme we are picking up this year at CWS as well. Recent challenges have prompted us to take a deep look inward. We are examining our community, our procedures, our structures, our school as a whole - to determine what traditions give us continuity and form; what innovative thinking keeps us relevant? While we are embracing many changes, we are excited to bring back a beloved tradition from CWS history - the Seasonal Journal. In the 1990’s, the Crossroads Waldorf School published a beautiful seasonal magazine for the greater CWS community. We are excited to relaunch this initiative, but this time as an E-Zine! We hope you will enjoy the thoughts shared here: exciting news from around campus, a peek in to our new middle school program, a look at handwork through the grades, a glimpse into the worldwide Waldorf100 celebrations, and more! We seek to honor what has come before while welcoming thoughtfully made adjustments. We are excited to welcome new members to our community, new initiatives in our classrooms, and new ways of connecting with each other. In this harvest season, we are planting hearty seeds for new growth while tending our beloved perennials. Together, we will reap the benefits of this beautifully healthy and bountiful garden. Warmly,
CWALDORF.ORG
Page 2 - CWS Seasonal Journal, Autumn 2019
Devynn Thomas Interim Administrator
TABLE OF CONTENTS We l c o m e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Dedication Poem ................................3 Happenings on Campus...............4-5 Michaelmas: Taming the Dragon......6 Michaelmas Songs..............................7 Recipe: Pumpkin Muffins...................7 Handwork Through the Grades ...8-9 100 Years of Waldorf .................... 10-11 Greetings from Admissions............ 11
May there reign here spirit-strength in love; May there work here spirit-light in goodness, Born from certainty of heart and steadfastness of soul, So that we may bring to young human beings Bodily strength for work, inwardness of soul, And clarity of spirit. May this place be consecrated to such a task; May young minds and hearts here find Servers of the light, endowed with strength, Who will guard and cherish them. RUDOLF STEINER Given at the dedication of a building at the first Waldorf School Page 3 - CWS Seasonal Journal, Autumn 2019
HAPPENINGS ON CAMPUS WELCOME TO OUR NEW SCHOOL DIRECTOR! The Board of Trustees is pleased to announce the hiring of our new School Director, Amanda Tipton! Amanda brings a solid background in Waldorf School administration, having most recently served for four years as the Administrator of the Suncoast Waldorf School in Palm Harbor, Florida. Amanda also founded a Waldorf School in Ecuador and served as the Administrative Coordinator here in Charlottesville from 2009-2013. Amanda possesses a wholistic understanding of the governance of Waldorf schools and a passion for Waldorf Education. We are fortunate to have someone of Amanda’s talents and leadership qualities to help guide our school at this important time. MIDDLE SCHOOL EXPLORATIONS The 6th, 7th, and 8th Grades have embarked on a new group adventure this year, gathering during the last two periods on Friday afternoons for Middle School Explorations. So far, they have enjoyed a kayak/ paddle board expedition to Beaver Creek Reservoir and spent two sessions hard at work building model solar cars. The solar car project, based on kits sponsored by Sigora Solar, will culminate in a race on September 14 during Applefest. ATHLETICS Middle school girls have started volleyball, already going up against Covenant School and with a full lineup of matches scheduled. No win yet, but “our girls played great!” says Coach Andrew Wilkinson. He was very pleased at the great turnout of students in other grades to support the team. Middle school boys have jumped right into the soccer season, already playing the Charlottesville Catholic School and Little Keswick and looking forward to a busy game schedule through October. The addition of a second regulation-size goal to the soccer field is a great improvement to their practice area! Page 4 - CWS Seasonal Journal, Autumn 2019
HAPPENINGS ON CAMPUS APPLEFEST
we have participated in several ways, most notably with the addition of our campus beehives. Students and families have created and sent postcards to schools around the world, and we have received many in return - stop by the Main Office to flip through our postcard book!
The Parent Association invites the School Community to Applefest on September 14. Come enjoy a potluck dinner with fresh-pressed apple cider, live music, and be sure to bring your entry for the apple dessert contest, to be judged by the 8th grade class! 5-8pm in the Pavilion September 19 is the coordinated day of celebration, and CWS will and Music and Arts Building. be marking the day with student service, art, and celebratory WALDORF 100 activities designed around the Happy birthday, Waldorf Schools! Waldorf 100 themes of promoting Charlottesville Waldorf School is initiatives that revitalize society proud to be a part of the world- and the earth. To connect with broader Charlottesville wide 100 years of Waldorf our celebration. Over the past year, community, we will be launching
Save the Date for
APPLEFEST! SEPTEMBER 14, 5-8PM THE CHARLOTTESVILLE WALDORF SCHOOL PAVILION 120 WALDORF SCHOOL RD CHARLOTTESVILLE VA 22901
MUSIC • POTLUCK • CIDER PRESS APPLE DESSERT CONTEST CWALDORF.ORG
a Coat Drive - including a hat and scarf making initiative! - with International Neighbors, and a Food Drive to donate to our local food bank. The celebration of Waldorf100 will continue through the year. MICHAELMAS The dragon approaches! All school families, friends, and alumni are invited to our Michaelmas celebration on September 27 at 8:30am. The Michaelmas Pageant has been reimagined to include the full grade school, and will come alive under the direction of Sr. Rodriguez. Games of valor and bravery for the students will follow. DIWALI CWS is excited to celebrate Diwali this year, as an expansion and enrichment of our Harvest Festival, on October 23. Mrs. Bajpai will lead the festivities, which will feature a three-part Indian-inspired orchestral performance arranged by Mr. Esposito and a performance from the 5th grade on the gamelan.
Page 5 - CWS Seasonal Journal, Autumn 2019
MICHAELMAS: TAMING THE DRAGON by Michael Wright, 5th Grade Teacher
Subtle changes in the light, cool mornings, tips of maple leaves turning red, all signs that the great wheel of the seasons is turning. Walking past the classrooms in the mornings one hears songs of harvest time and Saint Michael calling us to summon our courage to tame the dragons that accost us, both inner and outer. In olden times, the approach of winter brought the need to fill the larder, preserve the food that had been grown, stack up the firewood, make ready for the coming months of darkness and cold. We continue with these types of activities today, putting our gardens to bed, tightening up our houses to keep out the drafts, making sure our winter coats, sweaters, and snow boots are handy. Some of us are out in the barn before daylight tending the animals. In Waldorf schools, children are given the image of Saint George taming the dragon, a picture of bringing one’s inner courage to face uncertainties, anxieties, and fears. Behind Saint George stands Saint Michael holding his sword, representing courage, truth, and strength. The autumn Perseid and Alteid meteor showers provide the iron for Michael’s sword. Page 6 - CWS Seasonal Journal, Autumn 2019
HARVEST SONG (IN AUTUMN SAINT MICHAEL) In Autumn Saint Michael with sword and with shield Passes over meadow and orchard and field. He’s on the path to battle ‘gainst darkness and strife. He is the heav’nly warrior, protector of life. The harvest let us gather with Michael’s aid. The light he sheddeth fails not, nor does it fade. And when the corn is cut and the meadows are bare, We’ll don Saint Michael’s armour and onward will fare. We are Saint Michael’s warriors with strong heart and mind. We forge our way through darkness Saint Michael to find. And there he stands in glory Saint Michael we pray, Oh lead us on to battle and show us thy way. FIRMLY ON THE EARTH I STAND A Michaelmas Round in Three Parts with Ostinato Bass Firmly on the earth I stand; Michael’s sword within my hand; When I conquer fear, the dragon’s chains I tightly bind; Michael’s light within my mind; When I thrust against the monster’s pride, Michael is at my side. Ostinato: When I conquer within me fear and wrath, Michael in heav’n casts the dragon forth.
OATMEAL BUTTERMILK PUMPKIN MUFFINS 1 can pumpkin puree (15oz) 4 eggs 1/2 c vegetable oil 2 Tbsp ginger 2 Tbsp cinnamon 2 tsp ground nutmeg 2 tsp ground cloves 1 tsp salt 2 c sugar 2 c finely ground oats/oat flour 1 c whole wheat flour 2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 c buttermilk Whisk eggs into pumpkin puree until well beaten. Add oil, whisk in spices, salt, and sugar. Pour flour on top of the mixture. Measure baking powder and baking soda and mix them gently into the flour before whisking everything together. Add buttermilk and whisk until just incorporated. Pour into muffin liners or wellgreased muffin tin. Bake at 350˚F for about 25 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly pressed.
Page 7 - CWS Seasonal Journal, Autumn 2019
HANDWORK THROUGH THE GRADES by Barbara Jolly, CWS Handwork Teacher
Every year, grade school students look forward to the new projects for their grade. Some have siblings who have gone before them and know what to expect, others are meeting new techniques and projects for the first time. By December, each class has learned the handwork skill for that grade level and is working away at the projects for that year. The third graders are crocheting. It’s a whole new way to work, with only one tool and learning how to use it can be frustrating at first. Soon however, students forgot their initial challenges and their single crochet stitches grew first into a pencil case to use at school, then a little round mat. Then they will start working on colorful hats.
First graders will start making their needles in September, then learn or remember how to knit and start on their first handwork project. Their next project is to make the cases for their flutes. These are long rectangles with four color changes from dark to light, all in garter stitch. These will remain in use at school until the students get the really big recorders in the upper grades.
In second grade, all the students are learning to purl, which when used in combination with knit stitches, make a very different fabric, called stockinette. They learn to purl while making a star ball, with alternating sections of garter and stockinette stitch. Then the second graders are making a very long scarf, in the shape of a snake. Every student in this lively class has a different stripe pattern for this fun project.
Page 8 - CWS Seasonal Journal, Autumn 2019
Fourth graders also learn a new technique, this time embroidery and cross stitch. A large piece of 6 count aida cloth and needlepoint yarn is being transformed, stitch by stitch into a front panel for a book bag. Fourth graders also encounter handwork homework, thus helping them to build good homework habits for the coming years. The fifth graders return to knitting, this time in the round with double pointed needles. The students start the year by refreshing their knitting skill and make some stylish wrist
warmers. Then they will knit a pair of colorful wool socks and mittens, sized for wearing next year, which could come in handy.
design for ten or more embroidery stitches. These little gems will be treasured for years to come. In eighth grade, the students are currently in woodworking class. Our eighth graders will graduate next January to sewing machines. Our machines are simple mechanical types for learning the basics of garment construction. The project will be a cozy pair of colorful pajama pants.
Sixth graders begin learning hand sewing. They must pin, mark, baste, and sew with small, neat, even backstitches with good tension- known as ‘SNET’ in class. Their project is a human figure - quite like a Waldorf soft doll - but with the features and clothes of a twelve-year-old. This is a very popular project with the students and hair colors and clothes design are carefully considered so their project will have just the look they want. Seventh and eighth graders split the year into semesters, one for handwork and the other for woodworking. This semester, the seventh graders have handwork with an extended study of embroidery. This results in a beautiful felt book, which is intended to hold needles and pins for hand sewing. Each student will plan an interesting
The handwork curriculum teaches students many skills for improving their fine motor skills, challenges them daily with math and also teaches them perseverance. The students may not realize all that, but what they do care about is that they are making beautiful things that have a real use. This is an invaluable lesson for our increasingly busy lives.
“Handwork and crafts have been taught in all the grades since the founding of the first Waldorf school. Rudolf Steiner wanted the boys and girls to work together in these classes. In this he was way ahead of his time. It was unheard of to have boys doing handwork in 1919. Rudolf Steiner insisted on this radical innovation because, he said, handwork and crafts lead to the enhancement of judgement. Judgement comes out of the imaginative forces, working through the heart. It is not the head alone but the whole human being that forms a judgement. Many of the senses are used in handwork - sight, touch, movement, balance, and so on. The senses take in different impressions of the world and join them together to form a judgement. Our hands bring us into a deeper, closer relationship to the world, and, therefore, to a greater understanding of humanity.” - from Will-Developed Intelligence: Handwork & Practical Arts in the Waldorf School, by Patricia Livingston and David Mitchell. Published by Waldorf Publications.
Page 9 - CWS Seasonal Journal, Autumn 2019
100 YEARS OF WALDORF
First Steiner/Waldorf School founded in Stuttgart, Germany
Most European Waldorf School begin closing during WWII
24 Waldorf schools open in Germany 25 throughout Europe 5 outside of Europe
1919
1933
1953
1920 First Steiner/Waldorf School founded outside of Germany, in Dornach Switzerland
1928
1945
1968
First Waldorf School Steiner Schools begin in the United States to reopen in Germany Rudolf Steiner Academy in New York City
Friends of Waldorf Education forms for legal and economic support of Waldorf Schools worldwide
1971 1982
Association of Crossroads Waldorf Schools Waldorf School founded, now opens with 12 Association of students Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA)
Act locally, affect globally: Steiner/Waldorf schools change the world The first Waldorf school was founded in Stuttgart in 1919. Today there are over 1,100 Waldorf schools and almost 2,000 Waldorf kindergartens in some 80 countries around the globe. And more all the time. We are making our Centennial an occasion to further develop Waldorf education for contemporary times, and focus more consciously on its global dimensions. With many exciting projects on all continents. Keep your ears and eyes open, and be part of the movement: 100 years are just the beginning! MORE INFORMATION ON EVENTS HAPPENING WORLDWIDE AT WALDORF-100.ORG
Postcards from CWS students, ready to be sent out to Waldorf Schools around the world! Page 10 - CWS Seasonal Journal, Autumn 2019
CWS moves several times within Charlottesville: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, Camp Holiday Trails
First 8th grade class of 10 students graduates in June
CWS accepted as full AWSNA member
Grade school classroom building is completed
Paviiion and Music & Arts Buildings are completed
Waldorf Schools around the world celebrate 100 years!
1984-89
1995
1997
2007
2010
2019
1991
1996
2002
2013
CWS moves to former Crozet Elementary School and is formally sponsored for AWSNA membership
First Steiner/ Waldorf Schools are founded in Asia
School name is changed to the Charlottesville Waldorf School, and current property is purchased
CWS receives full accreditation by AWSNA and NCPSA and purchases the Little Red House for Early Childhood
Greetings from the Admissions Desk! This year we are so blessed and excited to welcome so many new families to our community. We are now up to 140 students in our school K-8. If you see a new face on campus please be sure to take a moment to introduce yourself and offer to be a source of information for them. Let’s be a community that resonates with warmth as we move into the crisp cool days of fall. Congratulations to CWS 8th Grade student Abigail Greenland for her 3rd Place win in the Piedmont Master Gardeners “Let’s Make a Difference” poster contest!
Sarah Pevehouse Admissions Director
Page 11 - CWS Seasonal Journal, Autumn 2019
CONTENT WITH THE CONTENT? We want to hear from you! Share your school experiences, photos, and Waldorf related news the Seasonal Journal will be published quarterly. Send requests, comments, photos, etc. to marketing@cwaldorf.org If you would like to be involved with putting this publication together, please be in touch!
THANKS TO SIGORA SOLAR FOR SPONSORING THE MIDDLE SCHOOL EXPLORATIONS SOLAR CAR PROJECT!
SAM DRUMELLER (540)470-7477 Page 12 - CWS Seasonal Journal, Autumn 2019
FACEBOOK.COM/CVILLEWALDORF • INSTAGRAM.COM/CVILLEWALDORF
